f secret societies and school dances. Friends are chosen not so
much for real worth as for clothes, position, attractive features or,
where there is no interchange of confidences between parents and
children, for sympathetic understanding. The longing for companionship
is God given and must be fostered, else the youth will enter maturity a
recluse and self-occupied, but nurture must carefully deal with it while
life is in a state of flux. The only course to be at all considered is a
substitutive, not prohibitory one, giving opportunity for social
intercourse under proper conditions.

The development of the affectional side of the life during this period
must be briefly noted.

Hero love and worship are more passionate than before. The object of
admiration is usually some one outside of the home, often a favorite
teacher who understands the heart of a boy and a girl. The patterning of
the life after its ideal is most seriously undertaken, even to imitation
of personal mannerisms. The privilege and responsibility of being the
lode star of an unresisting, unpoised life is tremendous, for this
influence overpowers all others at the time.

Strange manifestations of that which will later be love, holy and
beautiful, between man and woman characterize these years. At first
there is a mutual repulsion between the sexes. The boys are "so rough
and horrid," and as for the girls--the masculine sentiment concerning
them was voiced by one young cavalier in the words, "Oh, mush!" when his
Sunday School class was asked if they would like to invite their "lady
friends" to the coming class party.

But this stage does not continue, and soon nurture must deal with notes
written by foolish maidens and the first glamour of the great passion,
"sicklied o'er" with callowness and sentimentality. There is no more
perplexing problem in Adolescence than how to handle wisely this vernal
manifestation of love.

Blessed is the home where there are congenial and sympathetic brothers
and sisters, and wholesome and absorbing occupations. It is the vacuous,
roaming soul which is a prey to the multi-temptations of this period. If
the tastes and wishes of the young people can be satisfied in the home,
and a hearty and natural companionship of the sexes be welcomed in this
healthy environment, nurture will be bringing sanest measures to bear
upon the situation.

Against this complex background, the necessity of a personal
acquaintance with the Lord